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Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only Publication Acceptance Date: 1/1/2018 Publication Date: 1/30/2018 Citation: Sudduth, K.A. 2018. Sustainability through precision agriculture [abstract]. In: Herrmann, A., and Larsson, A. (eds). Sustainable Intensification of Agriculture Exploratory Workshop, January 30-31, 2018, Uppsala, Sweden. P. 30. Interpretive Summary: Technical Abstract: As population and standard of living increase in many parts of the world, so will the need for food and other agriculturally-based products. To be sustainable, these increases in production must occur with minimum impact on the environment and with efficient use of production resources, including land, water, energy, and other inputs. This sustainable intensification will require farmers and their advisors to better understand and optimize production systems under the constraints of varying soils, weather, and the host of biotic and abiotic stresses that can affect production. This process is enabled by precision agriculture, using electronic and computer systems to collect, manage, and extract information about the farming enterprise both spatially within fields and temporally through the growing season. Precision agriculture then uses this information to automatically control the machines that implement field operations. By recognizing and building on the value of information in agricultural decision-making, precision agriculture allows farmers to “do the right thing, at the right place, at the right time.” By targeting management operations and inputs according to crop needs, precision agriculture increases the economic and environmental sustainability of crop production, thus enabling progress toward the goal of sustainable intensification. |
